


A Portrait of My Heart

by Goldberry



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Dorks in Love, Established Relationship, Family Feels, IKEA Furniture, M/M, Slice of Life, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 17:55:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21324289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldberry/pseuds/Goldberry
Summary: Eddie is on the truck heading to an apartment fire when he receives a text message.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 32
Kudos: 834





	A Portrait of My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Another scene I just had to get out of my head. Lawd, save me from this show. I can only take so many feels.

Eddie is on the truck heading to an apartment fire when he receives a text message. He digs out his phone and opens the message, a smile lighting his face at seeing who it’s from. 

**Buck: ** _ I think this is what hell looks like. _

Eddie clicks on the attached picture and has to smother a laugh. It’s a selfie of Buck sitting cross legged on the floor looking rather grumpy, completely surrounded by the pristine white parts to some new furniture they had picked up at Ikea for Christopher’s room. His boyfriend is still in his sleepwear, his soft shirt and pants rumpled, his hair in disarray and he’s still the hottest thing Eddie has ever seen. 

The look on his face must say as much because Chimney lets out a low whistle. “You’ve got it bad, my man.”

Eddie just smiles in reply. 

The apartment fire turns out to be on the 7th floor. They use both the ladders and run lines up the stairs. Eddie spends an hour checking every apartment with the team to make sure everyone has evacuated and the fire is completely out soon after. They’ve got a few residents with minor smoke inhalation but no one with any major injuries. They are just clearing the scene and loading up when Eddie’s phone goes off again. He’s not able to check it until they are on the truck headed back to the station. 

**Buck: ** _ I can’t believe you left me here without supervision. _

Attached is another picture, this one of a stack of assembled drawers meant to go in the new desk. The top of the new desk is flipped over and Buck is holding a power drill in one hand and his phone in the other with a devious look on his face, as if he’s about to show some desk legs who’s boss. He’s dressed now in a dark shirt and jeans and Eddie feels a tendril of _ want _ curl into his chest. He wishes he could be there. He texts back. 

**Eddie: ** _ I told Christopher he was in charge. _

It takes a minute but another picture comes through, this one of Christopher laying on his stomach, intently focused on what appears to be some lego dinosaurs rampaging through a jungle of empty Ikea boxes. 

**Buck: ** _ Management is slacking. _

Eddie can’t help but grin. He and Buck’s schedules normally line up with both of them working the same shifts - something they both preferred - but every once in awhile they ended up in opposite shifts. It never felt quite right working without Buck next to him so he appreciates Buck’s way of checking on him, letting Eddie know he is thinking of him. 

The crew eat a hurried lunch and get called out before they can finish - motorcycle accident. Man and a woman fleeing from police runs a red light and collides with an oncoming vehicle. The car only has moderate damage and the driver seems fine minus some whiplash and shock. The two motorcycle riders were thrown, the man about fifteen feet, the woman about twenty-five. The male was awake and speaking but his right leg was clearly broken. The female was unconscious, a rag doll thrown into the middle of the street. 

“They were going close to 50,” Athena updates them grimly, busy securing the scene. Officers are everywhere directing traffic, taking stock of the crashed vehicles and speaking with witnesses. The intersection is completed blocked north and south by cop cars, traffic quickly gridlocking. “Driving without a license.”

Ambulances are arriving and Eddie is helping Hen and Chimney get the male on a back board.

“Where’s Angela?” the man asks, pain and tears in his voice. “Where is she?”

“She’s right here,” Eddie answers, calm and reassuring. “They’re looking after her but right now we have to get you to a hospital.” He checks in with one of the paramedics a little later though and finds out that the woman - Angela - had suffered severe internal injuries and was touch and go. 

“All because they didn’t want to pay a fine and spend a few days in jail,” Chimney says, shaking his head. 

They are on scene for several hours and it’s a quiet ride back to the station house. Eddie checks his phone, needing a spot of normalcy after the long afternoon and feels his spirits lift with an unread message from Buck. 

**Buck: ** _ Bribed my boss with ice cream and got to take a long lunch. _

There’s a picture of Chris and Buck at the ice cream parlor just down the street from Eddie’s place. Christopher’s cone is dripping down his hand onto his sleeve but he’s mid-laugh and Buck is grinning, his eyes a brilliant blue, hair a reddish-blonde in the sunlight. Eddie touches his phone screen with a finger, cherishing the sight of both his boys alive and well. Not a given with what Buck and Eddie do for a living. Not a given at all. 

Hen is peering over his shoulder at his phone and not even trying to hide it. “Tell Buck to have another ice cream,” she advises, “That boy is getting too damn skinny.” Eddie rolls his eyes and gets slapped on the shoulder for his trouble. 

Buck had lost a lot of weight after the fire truck incident and then the tsunami from simply being home-bound and regulating his diet due to the anti-coagulants. He’d worked his way back and regained most of it but not enough to please Hen who seemed to think he was always one step away from starvation.

**Eddie: ** _Think you can talk him into a raise?_

**Buck: ** _ Not looking good. Pretty sure I’m going to be fired for too many building code violations. _

Eddie hid a smile. 

The day drags on, the sun dipping below the horizon. Eddie spends some time in the gym before the evening takes a sudden turn at the end of his shift. Pileup on the freeway. 

There are five vehicles involved, one on it’s side while another has completely flipped and is upside down. Bobby orders Eddie and Chimney to that one while the rest of the team fans out, checking each vehicle. The upside down car is a small sedan and Eddie feels his heart drop - there’s an empty car seat in the back. 

The driver is a male, late thirties probably, and there’s blood all over him. Part of the steering column has been crushed into his chest. He has no pulse. Next to him in the passenger seat is a female, she’s awake and speaking to Chim through the broken window. Eddie gets down to peer through the rear driver’s side window. There’s no one in the back seat and no blood anywhere. 

They have to use the jaws to get the wrecked doors open. The wife gets puts into an ambulance but the husband is dead on arrival. Eddie thinks of the empty car seat and how, though they may not know it yet, a family has been destroyed somewhere.

The cleanup takes hours, taking both an emotional and physical toll. There are people crying, holding each other, witnesses speaking with police, tow trucks hauling off the totaled vehicles. Eddie’s shift has technically long ended by the time they get back to the station and he forgoes a shower in order to head home, his only thought to see his own family. 

He reads the last message from Buck on the drive home. 

**Buck: ** _ I love you. _

It’s dark in the house when he arrives and he dumps his bag by the door, kicking off his shoes. He peeks into the Christopher’s room but the bed is empty, though Eddie can see most of Chris’ new furniture has been put together. He pads down the hall to the master and finds the two halves of his heart snuggled together in his bed. Christopher is sprawled under the covers, one of his arms laying haphazardly on Buck’s chest. Buck is on his back, head turned to the side, breathing easily. There’s a children’s book on the floor as if he’d been reading to Christopher and the two had fallen asleep waiting for Eddie. Why Chistopher isn’t in his room is anyone’s guess but Eddie is suddenly grateful for it. Seeing them both together eases something in him that had grown tight. They’re both there. They’re both safe. 

Eddie moves around the bed to Buck’s side and leans down to trace his fingers down Buck’s cheek. 

“Hey,“ he murmurs softly. Buck shifts into the touch, blue eyes blinking open. A half asleep smile makes Eddie’s chest ache.

“Hey,” Buck whispers. He watches Eddie for a moment in the dark, his hand coming up to rest on Eddie’s arm. His eyebrows dip at whatever he sees. “Rough day?”

Eddie nods, aware he smells of gasoline and hot metal, that Buck knows what he doesn’t say. Buck’s grip on him tightens and he pulls Eddie down next to him, their legs tangling together. Eddie curls an arm around Buck’s waist and presses his nose against his neck, breathing him in. Buck’s heart beats beneath his ear, slow and comforting.

Eddie closes his eyes, Buck’s fingers drifting through his hair. 

“I love you, too.” He presses the words into Buck’s skin and feels him smile in return. 

“You’re gonna love me a lot less when you see the mess in the living room,” Buck murmurs sleepily. “Chris wouldn’t even let me take a picture.”

Eddie swallows a laugh, not wanting to wake his son, but it vibrates in his throat, honey-gold and real and perfect.

**END.**

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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